Object Cloning Pretend stairs -- not sure where to start

Nailed it! My rug-stairs kept turning invisible after I slaved them, so I attacked the problem another way -- instead of using the rug as a basis, I cloned the stare steppers and changed them into a rug. I don't recommend this method -- it's complicated and tedious, and ultimately, I don't think it was necessary; on the upside I knew the name was going to be the same all the way through, and I learned a lot about tiles, bhavs and so on.

It also looks that the railings were meant to be able to be turned invisible at will (left/right/both/none) at some point, a bit like on the modular stairs. I wonder if there might be a way to activate this function -- the railings are already split between right and left (4 each, 1 for each "height"); but the actual shadows of the railings are baked into the texture, so I'm not sure how good that would look even if we could do it. I'd need to make new textures, which kind of defeats the purpose of slaving the stairs in the first place.

Anyway, to the core of the issue: the back of the stairs (i.e. the tall wall) remains white no matter what colour you pick up. It calls for staircasestraightdesigner_stairslod90_ivory_txmt, and obviously gets its knickers in a knot when this material and texture are missing. It isn't directly listed in Shape / Parts, so for now, I've decided not to repository that element. I'll poke at it more to see if I can find a roundabout way to repo it, but at this stage, it's purely for my intellectual satisfaction!

In this version of the stairs, I also haven't touched staircasestraightdesigner_null_txmt. I'm curious to see what happens if I nuke it, and kind of wonder if it was meant for the railings.

Aside from that, everything else is slaved: the steps, the walls, and the shadows.

Next step: make an invisible recolour of Numenor's recolourable stairs.

Yessss! The recolour was easier to do than I expected. It's sooo nice. Only downside is, well, you might end up forgetting the modular stairs are even there, XD. I left the four top steps visible just to show how it worked. I'll have another go at it tomorrow -- make sure my packages are neat and proper-like, then do the other stairs as well. My brain-cells feel exhausted!

Won't pretend I understood everything you said, but congratulations. Always a great feeling when you've been working on something and you finally get it to work It's a great idea, I imagine you'll make a lot of people really happy with this creation.

Congrats on getting it to work! We still have the ability to remove railings from non-modular staircases. Hover over it with the railing tool and press control.

I never knew that, Semio! (Shows how often I use the fixed stairs, XD)

How very interesting! I suspect the null-txmt is used to hide the railings. I've removed this txmt from my stair covers, and it works fine -- although obviously the railings can't be hidden. When I click on the (fake) railings with the railing tool, however, I can hear the usual "clank". So I might be able to reinstate that functionality... but not now; not yet. My brain cells need to be dunked in a vat of cold water first.

Anyway, I've uploaded a test version. There are two packages in the zip: the fake stairs (found under build/stairs/fixed stairs), and a recolour of Numenor's recolourable deck stairs -- obviously required for the invisible recolour to work.

I'd be very grateful if someone who can use AGS could test this. I have UC, so I'm not sure how compatible this is. As the fake stairs are actually a clone of the BG Stare Steppers, the EP flag is set to 0 rather than the 4 you'd get from cloning a NL rug. I'm however quite certain it's not compatible with the base game only, and that it will require at least one EP. I suspect *any* EP with rugs would do, but I'm not sure.

Couple of other things / questions:
- I've assigned temporary GUIDs for now, so don't go and decorate all your lots with this version quite yet
- I've reduced the footprint to 4 tiles, so it's the right shape and size. I haven't changed the description yet.
- Have I left any unnecessary files / references in there?
- Does anyone know how to slave the LOD90 material?
- I haven't found any custom RCs of these stairs; I'd like to test a custom recolour. Do you know of one (not on TSR please)? Mind, I'll do one myself if none exists, that's fine!
- Finally finally, and that's more for housekeeping/proper release: the fake stairs are in the stair category, and I think I'll leave them there; they also cost as much as the real ones. So they actually cost more, as you first have to build the modular stairs, then buy the stair cover. My logic is that you pay extra for the look of the fixed stairs + the functionality of the modular! But do you think I should lower the price a tad (or a lot)?

Usage:
- Build stairs, using Numenor's recolourable deck stairs.
- Cover the stairs with the fake stare stepper.
- Recolour Numenor stairs with my invisible recolour.

I'm really grateful to anyone who would like to test these. Pretty please with a cherry on top?